Hurricanes always add an extra level of stress to our daily lives – if you are an expectant mother in the final days of your pregnancy, your anxiety can reach new heights.
Many could be asking how they can best take care of themselves when the power goes out, and possibly panicking about going into labour while the hurricane howls outside.
The good news is that while most of the island hunkers down in their homes, the maternity ward at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is a hive of activity.
“We would have a lot of nurses and moms here,” said Nicole Harvey, Bermuda Hospitals Board clinical manager for the maternity and special care baby unit, who described the atmosphere as “fun”.
This is because the unit is usually full, not just with medical staff, but also heavily pregnant women. “Once we know that a hurricane is likely to be hitting Bermuda, we contact all the mothers that are close to being due, at least a week or two away from their due date, and they get offered a stay at the hospital,” she said.
“They can stay overnight and come maybe 12 hours before the hurricane hits. Just in case they go into labour, they will be here and be safe.”
Twelve hours allows the women to get to the hospital safely before the hospital goes into lockdown for the duration of the storm. The hospital advises ahead of time when that lockdown will begin.
In order to ensure full staffing throughout the duration of a hurricane, there will also be more than one shift of nurses.
Nurse Harvey said: “On any given shift, we have four maternity nurses on days, four on nights, and then in the SCBU, we have three on days and three on nights.
“If the hospital’s going into lockdown, the nurses that are supposed to work that night would have to come in before lockdown and the nurses that will be on the following day shift would have to be here before lockdown.”
An obstetrician is also on duty.
“They take turns, so every hurricane, they have somebody designated to come in, so one obstetrician will stay over and deliver everybody who needs to be delivered,” she said.
“Usually, thankfully, it’s only two or three deliveries and they’re not too overwhelmed.”
In the event that a lot of babies do want to make their entrance into the world however, all the maternity unit nurses are trained midwives who know how to deliver babies.
The downside of having so many staff members in the hospital is that there isn’t always room for the fathers. Nurse Harvey did emphasise however, that wherever possible, they do try to make room for them.
“If they do go into labour during the hurricane, the partner is going to want to be there. But, we do have rooms and we have couches in the rooms for partners to stay.
“If they’re really, really close to the delivery we can allow it, if we have enough space, but that’s after we calculate who’s going to be staying in and how many beds we’ll need.”
While this may not be ideal for the expectant mother, especially if this is her first baby, the nurses try their best to keep everyone’s spirits up.
“It’s a community. They do make it fun because everybody’s stuck here for at least 24 hours,” Nurse Harvey said.
WHAT IF AN EXPECTANT MOTHER DOESN’T WANT TO GO INTO THE HOSPITAL?
“Some of the mothers opt to not stay and they either have family that live close to the hospital or they just feel like they’ll be fine. The obstetrician will express their concerns and they would prefer them to be in hospital, but it’s ultimately the mom’s decision whether they want to stay or not.”
For anyone who is pregnant during a storm, regardless of which stage of pregnancy, Nurse Harvey said it’s important that they
